In this picture: Yisett, Silke, Yaraví, Carlos, Dr. Patrick
Nee.

iGEM PANAMA

In this picture: Leyda, Zeuz, Laura

iGEM PANAMA

Labs.

Contents

Overall project

Standardization of the Rhamnosiltransferase 1 gene complex (rhlAB) into a Biobrick-friendly for rhamnolipid production in E. coli.

There is considerable interest among bio-industries in bioremediation products such as Rhamnolipids. Rhamnolipids as biosurfactants are important in the remediation of oil spill areas. The cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill with rhamnolipids as biosurfactants was too expensive and complicated, therefore impractical for large-scale bioremediation. However, advances in genetic engineering and synthetic biology offer a viable solution to oil spill pollution clean up. In this project we use genetic engineering as a tool to integrate genetic parts by the biobrick assembly standard protocol of iGEM to develop a biobrick-friendly for rhamnosiltransferase 1 complex (rhlAB) gene expression in Escherichia coli for standardized rhamnolipid production. Our biobrick integrates a promoter, a RBS (ribosomal binding site), our gene sequence of rh1AB isolated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a GFP reporter and a terminator. All the parts fit into a plasmid backbone that can be transformed into E. coli strains, which can then produce rhamnolipids.